The following year, under a reciprocal distribution arrangement with Rank, the U.S. company Pathé Industries, which already owned the small Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) studio, established an Eagle-Lion Films production subsidiary, while Rank's American business dropped the name.

[1] Some of the producers working at Eagle-Lion included Aubrey Schenck, Jack Schwarz and briefly, Walter Wanger and George Pal.

Their first year of films were financed with $8 million in loans from the Bank of America which Robert R. Young personally guaranteed.

Krim later attributed this to them paying too much money for stars who were scarcely good enough to prevent insufficient box-office returns.

Bryan Foy resigned as head of production to become an independent producer for the company and Arthur Krim became studio chief.

Along with Foy, other independent producers who worked for Eagle-Lion included Edward Small, Walter Wanger and George Pal.

By the spring of 1949, ten were in release, five of which earned a substantial profit – T-Men, Raw Deal, Canon City, He Walked By Night and The Noose Hangs High.

There were some exceptions, such as The Red Shoes which earned rentals of $5 million[5][6] as well as being their only release which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.